Pottsville enters contract with PCCD for floodplain management for city

by
Adam SweeneyThe Courier

10:56 AM, Tuesday, August 30 2011 | 490 views | 0 | 3 | |

POTTSVILLE — The Pottsville City Council approved to enter a contract with the Pope County Conservation District for floodplain management at its meeting Monday night.

Jeanette Hale will be the city’s representative within the PCCD, sparing the city the cost and time of sending city Road Department Manager Jason Howard to train for the duty.

“It’s a whole lot easier for her to do this than for us to send Jason to school,” Mayor Jerry Williams said.

Alderman Donnie Elliott asked if the term of the contract was open-ended.

“All I’m going to do is keep them in compliance and keep the heat, if you will, off City Hall to keep them from having to make these decisions,” Hale said. “So if someone comes — say we had addressed the situation with the fill (an issue in town Williams said could have been avoided had a contract with PCCD had existed). They wouldn’t be mad with you. They’d be mad at me, which makes it a lot easier on City Hall.”

“It can end whenever you (the council) want it to,” Williams answered.

Alderman George Woolf said he would prefer to see the city hire a full-time position to take care of floodplain management and serve as building code inspector “if we’re going to have someone from outside our community do this.”

Woolf went through the list of the varieties of violations the floodplain management contract identified as falling under Hale’s purview.

“How’s she going to know if any of those activities take place,” Woolf said. “... If we have an in-house person who is also a building code official who does inspections and enforces the code, in his moving around the city, he could keep an eye on the things that might pop up on the plain.”

Elliott said he agreed but was unsure if the city could afford it.

Alderman Milton Eoff said he disagreed on one point of Woolf’s suggestion.

“We’re not a big city like Little Rock,” Eoff said. “We don’t need somebody running around here with a ticketbook sticking out his back pocket.”

Hale responded to Woolf’s concern and said though her office is not located in the city, she would drive through the area frequently.

The council voted 4-1 for the contract, with Woolf voting against.

The council also agreed upon a revised contract for a school resource officer at Pottsville schools. The city will pay $21,017.65 of the officer’s salary, with the school paying about $20,000, Williams said.

Williams informed the council the state Highway Transportation Department requested a name for the State Highway 247 bypass. Eoff suggested the name “Veterans’ Parkway.” Wiliams said the council would revisit the issue in the future.

The council declined a request for a permit on a 1978 model mobile home, citing an ordinance that states such homes cannot be more than three years old.